VINTAGE FENDER AMPLIFIERS!

Many times I have been asked what amplifiers I play all of these Fenders through... Well, what else but a selection of vintage Fender blackface amps! Admittedly, I am much more into guitars than amplification, and for many years i made do with a minimum... My first amp was a 60's Sears Silvertone head/cab combo that I foolishly sold many years ago thinking that it was too big and bulky to go off to college with me. I bought a small Fender Champ 25SE with the "hybrid" technology of a tube pre-amp with solid-state circuitry. I'll be honest, I loved that little amp, and played it for many, many hours throughout the mid-late 90's and into the new millenium. Later I bought a Deluxe Reverb Reissue, and with an upgraded Jensen Alnico speaker it became my go-to amp for several years. With that said, I always had the desire to own a "real" 60's Blackface amp, and decided one winter that I was going to try my hand at a restoration. That first resto turned into 2 more, and i now own 3 decidedly awesome vintage Fender amps, and use them all regularly. "Purists" may cringe at the idea of restoring the cosmetics of an original Fender amp, but I decided that the world would not end if I made a trio of old amps look showroom fresh, especially after looking at literally hundreds of beat up, well worn original examples. In any case, what you see below is my handiwork, and I gotta admit that I'm quite pleased and proud at how well they turned out. Have a look!

1965/66 Fender Bandmaster

This was the first restoration I ever did. I always loved the look of the mid-60's "Transitional" cosmetics of the blackface amps, with the smooth blonde tolex and infamous "gold sparkle" grill cloth. While this amp was originally finished in black tolex, it was fairly beat up, with various tears to the outer covering as well as the grill cloth itself. While some may have left it alone, i decided I wanted to try my hand at a full restoration and spent a few weeks stripping the head and cab to bare wood, filling any nicks or gouges, and ultimately replacing all the worn black tolex with new reproduction blonde material from mojotone.com. I did everything myself, (most in my living room and kitchen!) and paid particular attention to getting the details correct, including the ways the vinyl covering was seamed, the proper cuts, overlaps, corners, and finished edges. I also stretched the new grill cloth myself, and topped off the resto with freshly rechromed hardware. The original black faceplate was in exceptional condition, as were the knobs, switches and jack plates. The amp had previously been freshened with new caps where needed, and the 2 12" speakers are Celestion "Green Backs". While it's not 100% pure and original, it looks awesome and has tone that can only come from a vintage blackface head.

1964 Blonde Tremolux

This one came to me by accident.. sort of! I had just finished up the restoration of the Bandmaster seen above, when I noticed this one for sale while browsing photos online of original blonde transitional Fender amps. I contacted the seller to ask a few questions, and before I knew it I was trading a Classic Vibe Tele and some cash to buy this one too. It was in rough condition as well, but was 100% original, including the matching 2x10" speaker cab, complete with the original speakers. As with the Bandmaster, the original faceplate was mint, and I had enough extra material from the previous restoration of the Bandmaster to restore this one without having to buy any more tolex or gold sparkle cloth. What I did buy was some new hardware, 2 original "snowman 8" knobs, and a reproduction footswitch. This one is my favorite amp, and currently resides in my living room!

1972 "Blackface Conversion" Bassman

This one was a result of boredom... It was the last of the 3 restorations I performed to date, and the idea was originally to build a Bassman piggyback combo to complete my "trio" on a budget. I found a well worn 1972 Silverface Bassman 50 for sale online at a good price. The amp was in good working condition, and had previously been updated with new caps and a "blackface mod". This was the only one I bought without the matching original cab, but I found a new reproduction one built out of birch, and was already covered in proper black tolex with new hardware and silver grill cloth. it was also loaded with Classic 30 speakers, and just perfect for my Bassman. I re-tolexed the head, fixed some damage to the wood of the head cabinet, added all new hardware and a reproduction 60's style faceplate to replace the bent and scratched silver original. When all was said and done, I invested way too much time and effort into it, and honestly have more money in it that I could ever hope to recoop out of it if i ever decided to sell it.... but it sounds amazing, looks great, and completes my quest to own a Fender Bassman piggyback combo!